Art, tech, life & laughs by Liana G.

Spotlight: James Ciccone

Since I began my foray into acting, I have been searching high and low, far and wide for someone who could perform one simple task: Sit me down, and in a very logistical and technical manner, teach me movement and positioning etiquette and technique for television roles. We’re talking scorched earth level hunting on my part. I spent real, grownup amounts of money on intensives looking for a proclaimed “television acting instructor,” who would do me the favor of acknowledging that the camera frame was of extreme importance. You’d think in a place like NYC this would be a simple task. Well you thought wrong!

It wasn’t until my brief consultation with manager Wendy Alane Wright (California-based, ironically) that she recommended James Ciccone to me. “He’ll get you into the audition room. He’ll get you callbacks. He’ll get you booked.” she told me. “I’m sold.” I replied.

Need I say more?

And I’m glad that I did show up. While the class runs super late into the night, and isn’t currently something I can dedicate myself to every week, in just one day, I felt enlightened. Turns out there were a myriad of mistakes I was making in my audition tapes pertaining to the limited physical allowances of the typical TV closeup and negotiating this fact of life with showing and keeping emotions fresh and fluid over the course of a scene for the sake of the viewer. Fixes are relatively simple, but do take time to learn how to place them correctly into a scene yourself.

This is one class that I’m definitely going to start attending hardcore once my schedule opens back up. Hopefully within the next two weeks or so. I’m excited to eventually add it to my resume, and pumped to see what it will do for my self-tape success!